Love In the Ruins

Abandoned buildings stand all over the city of Detroit.  A home with flower boxes and a well kept lawn sits opposite a burned out husk of a house across the street.  Empty warehouses and apartment buildings with broken or boarded up windows dot the avenues, many with graffiti painted on them.  The streets themselves are eerie with an absence of traffic.  Vacant lots overgrown with weeds are everywhere.  Above all the ruins of Detroit rises the once majestic Michigan Central Station, which in its prime saw 4000 rail passengers a day and 3000 workers in its office tower — now it’s empty.  There are vacant spaces in Adrian, but nothing like we saw on our mission trip to Detroit.

A group of 12 youth and 6 adults from our church spent three days in Detroit serving with Cass Community Social Services, an agency whose mission is “Fighting Poverty, Creating Opportunity.”  We sorted and shredded documents, painted a sewing room, dismantled shelves, stained a hardwood floor in a new apartment, removed piles of trash and debris, demolished old furniture, made mud mats from recycled tires, fixed sandwiches for prisoners, and helped the developmentally disabled play BINGO.  For three days we did whatever the folks at Cass needed done.  We also toured the city, including Belle Isle, walked through a stunning outdoor art display, heard a homeless gospel choir sing, enjoyed a lovely dinner in Mexican Town, and took a cool dip in a pool.  On the drive back to Adrian Wednesday evening, we marveled at the rich cross-cultural encounter we had only an hour and a half away from home.

Walker Percy wrote the dystopian novel Love In the Ruins.  I remember only its great title and one scene when a man sits on the floor and stares at suspended bits of dust in a shaft of sunlight.  The book floated back into mind as our group made mud mats, a green project that reuses tires, makes money for Cass and gives the unemployed work and a paycheck.  Love In the Ruins is a perfect phrase to describe Cass Community Social Services.  Amid the ruins of a once grand city, Cass makes real the love of Jesus, helping the poor to recreate their lives.  We felt privileged to work alongside them.